The General Dynamics Land Systems factory is seen in London, Ontario, Canada

[File: Chris Helgren/Reuters]

Canada lifts suspension of arms exports to Saudi Arabiatoday

The Canadian government is lifting a suspension on arms exports to Saudi Arabia and has renegotiated a controversial multibillion-dollar contract that will see an Ontario-based company sell light armoured vehicles (LAVs) to Riyadh.

The “significant improvements” to the contract would secure the jobs of thousands of Canadians, “not only in Southwestern Ontario but also across the entire defence industry supply chain, which includes hundreds of small and medium enterprises,” Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and Minister of Finance Bill Morneau said in a statement on Thursday.

In December 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau maintained that Canada “was looking for a way out of the Saudi arms deal”, following the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.A month earlier the Liberal government suspended approvals of new arms export permits for Saudi Arabia pending an indefinite review.

INFOGRAPHIC

Saudi Arabia: The world’s largest arms importer from 2014-2018The 14 billion Canadian dollar ($10bn) deal to export LAVs made by the Ontario-based General Dynamics Land Systems to Saudi Arabia was brokered in 2014 by the previous Conservative government.